How many times have you read a blog post that contained a quote from an expert or an infographic from a leading publication? That’s called content curation. And it’s an excellent way to supplement your brand’s original content.

What is content curation, and why do it?

Content curation, as described by Jessica Ann, the CEO and creative director of Jessica Ann Media, “is the process of sorting through relevant information in your industry and sharing it in a meaningful, helpful, and consistent way.”

Brands use content curation because:

It’s both cost-effective and time-effective if you don’t have the resources or budget to create original content.

Collections are similar to lists, except that they’re more commonly used for visual content. For example, if you were a website designer, you could generate a collection of inspirational website designs from around the web.

Roundups

Roundups are simply responses from industry experts. For example, you could ask small businesses for their favorite productivity tricks through a service like HARO. Once you receive the responses, you could write a blog post entitled “The Top 12 Productivity Hacks From Small Business Owners.”

Shared Research

Curated content in which you share other people’s research is a great way to help you become an industry authority figure, because it’s information your audience wants to know. We did this in our previous blog article, “9 Email Marketing Stats Every Marketer Should Know.”

Newsletters

Instead of promoting your company directly, you could curate a “best of” newsletter for your subscribers that includes content focused on your niche. For example, you could collect the best blog posts focused on online marketing from the past week and email them to your readers.

Social Sharing

Social sharing is simply sharing content you enjoyed through your social channels. Let’s say you found an interesting infographic from an industry leader. You could then tweet that visual to your audience.

Republished Content

Sharing someone else’s blog post, with permission, can make for an interesting read for your audience. And the original author may even be flattered. However, simply copying and pasting the blog post isn’t the most original tactic. Instead, you should add your spin to their content by offering your own opinion or interviewing the author.

Quotes From Authority Figures

Inserting a quote from an industry leader or authority figure helps lend credibility to your content. It can also be used to support your opinions. However, you can also use quotes to create a counterargument.

Highlights From Events

Did you just attend an industry event or webinar? You can share highlights from the event with your audience.

Audience Involvement

You don’t have to curate content just from influencers. You can also curate content from your audience. For example, you could conduct a poll or survey asking your audience what they look for in customer service, then share the results in a blog post or graph. You could also ask them to create videos or send images of themselves using your product, which are then shared on your social channels.

Final Words of Advice

If you want to get the most out of content curation, make sure you follow these tips:

Know your brand and tone. This will guide you in determining which type of content to curate and which sources to reference.

Stay organized by using tools like Feedly and BuzzSumo. These tools not only help you discover and save great content, they can also be customized by keyword, author, and domain.

Only select high-quality content that your audience will find valuable.

Provide context for the content by adding your own perspective, knowledge, or insight. This could just be your own introduction before sharing an infographic.

Always attribute your sources. By not giving credit to the original creator, you could be accused of plagiarism.

Don’t overwhelm your audience. Have a limited but steady stream of content; you don’t need to tweet 50 times a day.

Follow the 80/20 Rule. As Sofie De Beule states in an article for Social Media Today, “use just 20% of your content to promote your brand, and dedicate 80% to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversations.”

Monitor your success by measuring metrics like the number of likes or shares, and the growth in followers or subscribers.

Don’t forget to include a clear call to action, like signing up for your newsletter.

How have you used content curation in your content marketing strategy?